Fans who thought they had identified the real Banksy could be disappointed after a mystery man spotted at the scene claimed he was just a builder – and not even a fan of the mural.
Locals admiring the newest Banksy work in London suggested the prime suspect might have let his mask slip by turning up at the scene and being caught on camera.
Pictures were taken of the individual beside a mural which appeared on a wall in Hornsey Road in Finsbury Park, north London, on March 17 before being vandalised with streaks of white paint shortly afterwards.
But instead of being Robin Gunningham, a former public schoolboy from Bristol whose link to Banksy was first revealed by a Mail On Sunday investigation in 2008, this person today identified himself as 67-year-old George Giorgiou.
The retired builder revealed himself to be the father of the building’s landlord Alex Georgiou, who previously spoke to MailOnline about his plans for the property.



Estate agent Alex looked to allay neighbours’ fears by claiming he wouldn’t be charging more off the back of the area’s sudden fame.
However, he welcomed interest from potential buyers, as he told MailOnline: ‘You know what, if somebody offered me millions and they can have the building and take the flats with it. Feel free.’
Now George said of those who photographed him: ‘Instead of just whipping a picture, they should’ve just said who are you? Would’ve been so much easier.
‘It’s nonsense. I’m the landlord’s father. I know nothing at all about the work.’
He told the Sun he had spent almost £2,500 on Perspex for the mural so far and has 24/7 security protecting it.
He added: ‘I’d like to get a roller and go over it, get it over and done with, just paint it. It’s not a masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination.
‘It’s for the public really – unfortunately, there are a bit too many jealous people around.
‘Am I fan? I don’t know, not a thing I have ever really thought about. We are running round like headless chickens trying to protect it.’
He added he had ‘no idea’ if the mural would stay there, saying the local council had shown ‘no interest’ in it.
He said: ‘They want us to preserve it, we asked them to cough up a bit, they completely blew us out. They weren’t interested in any financial help.’
The MoS’s 2008 investigation published a photograph taken in Jamaica in 2004 showing a man with a bag of spray cans by his feet – which was identified as Mr Gunningham.
Crowds of people have continued to visit the site of the new mural in Hornsey Road.
George added: ‘Every day there is 400-500 people, every day. I came by Sunday morning, around 9am – there were at least 200 people and it was a miserable day.
‘It’s nice in a way, it can’t do any harm, but it worries me he is going to encourage idiots to do this kind of thing.’
A local Banksy fan who took the latest pictures on Saturday said: ‘I have been going to the mural for a whole week.
‘On Saturday there was more security fences and CCTV up and a few people putting up Perspex over the artwork.



‘I went back at 10am to go have another look at what they were doing and saw this man who looks exactly like the photo I saw 20 years ago of Banksy.
‘I found it weird he was putting up his own Perspex.
‘The people putting it up weren’t wearing council uniforms or anything. One was wearing a Nirvana T-shirt – he must have been there for hours.’
The new mural depicts an abstract appearance of foliage next to a stencil of a person holding a pressure hose.
It was later confirmed by Banksy on his Instagram to be genuine.
Banksy is also believed to have gone by the name Robin Banks, and in 2017 the DJ Goldie referred to him in an interview on the Distraction Pieces podcast as ‘Rob’.
One of Banksy’s most striking moments was in 2003 when he disguised himself as a pensioner and installed a piece in a vacant spot in the Tate Britain in London.
His artwork Girl With Balloon self-destructed in a Sotheby’s London saleroom when descending into a shredder in 2018.
That piece was then renamed Love Is In The Bin, which in 2021 sold for £18.6million – an all-time high for a Banksy artwork.
It was reported last October that Banksy was named as the first defendant in a High Court legal action accusing him of defamation.
His co-defendant is the company Banksy established named Pest Control Ltd, which sells his art.
MailOnline also revealed how a former Labour Parliamentary lobbyist Joy Millward, originally from the West Midlands, is said to be married to Banksy.
She worked as a researcher for Labour MP Austin Mitchell, who died in 2021, and later set up Principle Affairs, a lobby group for charities.







Ms Millward is thought to have met Mr Gunningham in 2003 before they married in Las Vegas in 2006.
The Mail On Sunday investigation identified Banksy as Mr Gunningham, Bristol-born son of former contracts manager Peter Gunningham and his wife, company director’s secretary Pamela.
Meanwhile, Banksy’s voice was recently heard for the first time in 20 years when an audio clip was unearthed of him refusing to apologise for his graffiti.
The recording dates back to 2003 when ex-BBC arts correspondent Nigel Wrench interviewed Banksy to mark the opening of his Turf War exhibition in east London.
Only some of the material was broadcast that July on the Radio 4’s PM programme, but Mr Wrench was recently listening to The Banksy Story podcast which came out last July – leading him to find the full interview on a minidisc at his home.
The BBC released last November a bonus podcast episode featuring the discussion.
In the interview Banksy can be heard defending how he does his work undercover at speed, saying: ‘I’m not here to apologise for it – it’s a quicker way of making your point, right?’





According to the podcast, the interview was recorded in the run-up to the artist’s 30th birthday, as he was installing his debut exhibition Turf War in a warehouse in Hackney, East London.
The show featured a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II as a chimpanzee, one of Winston Churchill with a grass Mohican and two live pigs painted in the blue and white check worn by the Metropolitan Police.
In the interview, Banksy said his work was a ‘celebration of vandalism’, adding: ‘It’s about justice.
‘If you’ve ever fallen foul of the justice system, then it turns you very sceptical about everything, so I guess I like to turn it on its head a little bit. I’m into working out who really are the good guys.’
He has sold works to singer Christina Aguilera, who owns a pornographic picture of Queen Victoria with a prostitute.
Another buyer was actress Angelina Jolie who has a twist on a Manet painting in which a white family lunch under an umbrella watched by 15 starving Africans.
He also created the artwork for Blur’s 2003 album Think Tank.




The owner of one building in Shoreditch, east London, painted over one of Banksy’s etchings after they became irritated by a security light constantly being activated by Banksy fans turning up to view it.
And homeowners Garry and Gokean Coutts spent £200,000 removing a mural of a seagull from their house in Lowestoft, Suffolk, when they were forced to hire security after it became a target for vandals and thieves.
Another Banksy artwork that appeared in Peckham, south London – a traffic stop sign covered with three military drones – was stolen less than an hour later last December.
MailOnline has approached Banksy’s representatives Pest Control Office for comment.
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